Junta says Suu Kyi provoked violence

July 7 2003By Mark BakerAsia EditorSingapore

Burma's military rulers have thumbed their noses at international demands for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, effectively blaming her for the crackdown in which scores of her supporters were massacred.

An abusive commentary published in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper at the weekend accused Ms Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy of plotting against the regime and undermining prospects for political reconciliation.

"Auntie Suu is a wilful and hard-headed person liable to rash judgements followed by blind action in her relations with the present Government," said the commentary, absurdly attributed to an anonymous disaffected league member. "They (the NLD) had started to furtively plot mischief and make plans to hit below the belt."

The paper also published undated pictures of the Nobel laureate attending a so-called "family dinner" with the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe - believed to have been taken in 1995 after Ms Suu Kyi was released from her first six-year period under house arrest and the generals promised to begin talks on restoring democracy.

Rangoon-based diplomats said publication of the commentary appeared to be part of a new campaign by the regime to denigrate Ms Suu Kyi, whose name has rarely been mentioned in public in recent years. They said the attack strengthened indications that the junta had no intention of bowing to mounting regional and international pressure for her release.");document.write("

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Ms Suu Kyi continues to be held at a secret location in Rangoon, five weeks after she was arrested during a violent confrontation in northern Burma that the United States has described as a premeditated attack led by pro-Government thugs.

On Friday, two league members who escaped the May 30 assault on Ms Suu Kyi's convoy gave graphic testimony to a Thai Senate committee of how a mob of about 2000 attackers, crazed by drugs and alcohol, had beaten to death scores of party supporters and villagers with clubs and steel spikes.

"I saw with my own eyes the attackers striking down the victims with all their force and stabbing viciously with pointed iron rods," said 50-year-old Khin Zaw, a senior league executive who was smuggled across the border and is now in hiding in Bangkok.

"They mainly aimed and struck at the head. Even when I was at a hundred yards, I heard with anguishing pain the popping sounds of heads being broken by savage blows."

Wunna Maung, a 26-year-old league youth leader, described women whose clothes and jewellery were torn off by the mob, some of whom were dressed as monks. "They pulled their hair and crushed their heads on the road and beat them so severely," he said.

But in the weekend commentary, the regime blamed Ms Suu Kyi for stirring political unrest.